Door-hanger.



B. R; BONNEY dz 0. A. BROWN.

DOOR HANGER.

APPLIOATIOH mum SEPT. 26. 1910.

Patented Sept. 26, 1911.

.Q/A. Q

h I m UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BICK R. BONNEY AND ORBA A. BROWN, 0F WICHITA. KANSAS.

DOOR-HANGER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed September 26, 1910.

Patented Sept. 26, 1911.

Serial No. 583,822.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that We, Bron R. Bonner and 0mm A. BROWN, citizens of the United States, residing at \Vichita, in the county of Sedgwick and'Statc of Kansas, have invented certain new' and useful Improve-- ments in Door-Hangers, of which the following is sspecification.

Our invention relates to improvements in combined door hangers and tracks cnerally and more particularly to hangers or doors on freight cars.

The principal object of our invention is to provide an improved anti-friction ball bearing door hanger which shall be simple in construction which shall support the door at or near each end for all positions of the door, and which shall be self adjustable A still further object is to provide a hanger which shall be plain and inexpensive in construction, efficient in operation and durable in use.

As various forms of roller bearing door hangers have previously been discloscsd by others we do not claim such a device broadly, but rather with respect to the particular novel features hereinafter set forth.

One advantage of our construction is that two separate parallel race-ways are provided with virtually an elastic and transversely expansible hanger between them adaptedto engage the balls both laterally and vertically and -roll smoothly thereon.

Another feature of our device that is especially advantageous in a ball bearing hanger is the extension of the carrier or hanger beyond the sides of the door and the leaving of a eorres onding dead and unused space between t no active portions, thus at all times assuring substantial su )port for both front and'rear edges of the door. Otherwise the balls tend to roll under one side exclusively when the door is fully opened-or closed. \Ve aim to avoid this and without the use of ball retainers or spacers.

These and other objects will'he more fully set forth andmade apparent in the follow ing specification and claims in connection with the, accon anying drawings showing a preferred em odlment in which a form particularly adapted :to freight cars is shown and in which-1 ,Fi re 1 isa side elevation of a freight car siowingapplieants device, the upper part being shown in section along the line 1-1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section through the wall, truck, hunger and door along the line i2---2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3

is an outer persperthe view (it the outer one of the door hunger plates designated 5. Fig. 4 is a vertical cross section similar to Fig. 2 of a modification of our hanger structure.

Like reference numerals apply to like parts in all the drawings. The principal parts of our improved door hanger are a track fastened to the wall on the upper side of the doorway, and a hanger proper or carrier comprising a pair of flanged hanger plates attached to the upper edge of the door and adapted to be reciprocably mounted on the said truck, with provision for spherical rollers to enact between the said truck and llill'lgtl's. These parts thus constitute a complete ball bearing hanger.

The track preferably consists of an integral hollow channel bar preferably of iron or steel with the depending side flanges turned inwardly toward each other at the bottom, thus producing a long reetangulaif box-like structure having a long narrow central opening on the under side. Means are provided for fastening this track in place by means of screws or bolts 8 passing through the upper part and extending into or through the wall over the doorway. The

inwardly turned flanges or ups 10 on the under side 'of the tract provide parallel tracks for the ball bearings with an open slot between. i i

The carrier or hanger proper, prci'erohl' consists of two similar longitmiinull disposed parallel. flanged plates and 13 attached to the opposite sides of the uppgr whole len 'th. 'lhose plank-s5 and (l are i i-- screws or bolts A. these plates are turned inxva 1y toward each other above the door, but not vnguglug eu'eh other and than directly upward be tween the inwardly{turned lips 10 of the depending truck above dv.-=v.='ibcd. The up pol. edges 11 of these hanger Plates are op-' edges of the door and extending along its" posit'ely turned and extend Oven li'hc inwar'dly turned track lips 10 and rest upon the balls 7. The balls 7 are held latera i on, the outside by the depending flanges of the track 4 and on the inside by the upwardly extending flanges of the hanger plates 5 and 6.

lt is apparent that the raceways for the balls comprise in their formation the side flanges of the track 4, the lips 10, plates 5 and (S, and the lips 11 carried by said plates. By a peculiar feature of construction of the lips 11 the raceways are each divided into two equal lengths by means of dependent stops 13 formed by turning down the upper lips 11 at their middle points. This makes substantially four separate raceways, .each adapted to accommodate a single ball bearing. The outer end of each raceway is terminated by a stop 12 similar to stops 13.

Since the ball in bearings of this character ordinarily moves only half as far as the door, it is only necessary to provide runways sntliciently long to let the balls roll half the distance that the door is desi mod to move. This makes it necessary t at the total distance between stops on each raceway should be equal to one half the door'moveinent plus the diameter of the ball roller. Moreover, on account of turning down the uper edge of Ii 11 to form stops 13 there is a considerabe space longitudinally between the adjacent raceways. This space, however, between raceways is not detrimental, but on the other hand is advantageous because the resultant wider longitudinal spacing of the raccways insures a more stable balance when the door is not at an intermediate position, for the bearings supporting opposite ends of the door are thus kept spaced more widely apart for all positions of the door. On account of the requirements above noted it is obviously necessary the the track must extend over more than double the length of the door movement and therefore project beyond the sides of the doorway. Moreover, that art of the hanger plates which extends amve the top of the door and especially that portion which constitntes part of the bull raceways must project beyond the edges of the door on each sideenough to compensate for the unused or dead space between the raceways and also forthediametcrs of two ball bearings. Since half of thiscxtra length is disposed of on each side of the door the projection on each side will" be substantially half the sum of the dead ,space and the diameter of one of the balls. The dead space may increased beyond what is occasioned by the stops above." This results in spacing the hearings widcr'apart and glvin correspondingly greater stability to the anger espe- 60 .cially in view of sudden opening and closing 'forces applied to-the door. The preferred constructioi'i n oviding Fig. 1 at the, left end-where the door. is 'n its closed position. This-construeshown '1 tion is shown particularly inFig. 3 where be considerably for this is shown in the hanger plate 5 is shown with the upper portion and lips 11 extending out over the ends of that part of the plate which attaches to the door. The fixed or track part of the raceways are provided with special stons 14 at each outer end. These stops are removable in order to permit the insertion of the hanger plates 5 an 6 in the slot of the track 4, said plates beinp previously secured to the door. The balls 7 may readily be inserted or removed when one of these stops 14 is removed.

The hanger plates 5 and 6 are resilient especially in the upward extending portion above the edge of the cor so as to press inwardly and so keep the ball bearings laterally engaged between the sides 'of the track and hangers at all times. This tends'to prevent their getting out of position in case the lips 11 at any time do not engage the hearings on 0th sides of the hanger. In case one of t e balls should et out of position there is little chance diet the ball on the opposite raceway would get displaced at the same time. Even if both bal s at one end of the door should get displaced at the same time the condition would be maintained only'through one movement of the door during which movement they would slide instead of roll and after whic they would attain their normal rolling positions.

In the modification of the track shown in Fig. 4 the track structure instead of being composed of one integral hollow member 4 is made up of two depending an le bars 15 and 16 spaced apart by a block 1% lying between their upper edges and held in place by a bolt or the like 8. The lower horizontal' flanges are turned inward, but do not exten'd far enough to meet. The fastening means 8 preferably serve to hold the track in place against the wall. Otherwise the structure is essentially the same as above described with respect to Fig. 2. The advantage of this modified structure lies in the greater convenience of using the more comlllOll sta nlard angle bars instead of the rather special channel bar 4 first described. If preferred the two styles may be combined to the extent of placing a filler block in the upper part of the channel at 4, thus reinforcing same arid providing a substantially smooth roof for the hanger to bump a ainst, as in Fig. 4, in case it should be given a sudden start It is obvious that e lindrical rollers' may be used instead of ha is in our hanger and thereby make full use of the benefielal features of longitudinally spaced raeeways and the corresponding overlap of the ban r beyond the side edges of the door. Sp er 1cal referably rollers-however, ad of frictionless lateral engagement incident to the divergent lateral tension of'tlfecard the further advantage rier plates in our hanger. The resilience of the carrier plates cushions the effect of any sudden transverse force, as a blow on the door, and lessens the danger of breakage to the hanger parts.

It is to be noted that in the preferred em bodiment of our invention, we construct the flanges 10 and 11 of less width than the diameter of the balls whereby contact between the hanger plates and the track is avoided.

lVe claim 1. A combined door hanger and track comprising a downwardly open hollow track havinginturned flanges at its lower edges forming bearing rails and adapted to be se cured to the side of a car above the doorway, spherical rollers seated on said rail, an up- \vardly extending carrier comprisin two separated hanger arms adapted to secured to the upper portion of the sides of the door, said arms provided respectively with an inturned flange, said flanges spaced apart longitudinally and provided with stops to limit the movement of said rollers.

2. A door hanger comprising, in combination, a downwardl opening hollow track having its lower e ges turned toward each other forming lips slightly spaced 11 art providing an 0 )en slot between them, r0 lers carried by saiil lips, a carrier compi'sing s aeed apart hanger arms extending upward t rou d1 said slot and having oppositely turne flanges having longitudinally spaced portions formed by means of turned down portions of said flanges comprising stops adapted to limit the movement of the rollers.

3. In a door hanger, in combination, a track having two horizontally inturned flanges, and a longitudinally recin'ocable carrier comprising separate separate hanger arms having upwardly extending plates with outwardly turned flange portions adapted to overlap the flanges of the said track, said carrier flanges being turned down at the ends andat the middle forming two longitudinally spaced compartments in each flanged portion, and four spherical rollers adapted to fit one in each of the said compartments, the length of each compartment being substantial y half the maximum space normally traversed by the door plus the diameter of one of the rollers, the motion of the door being arrested in each direction by suitable stops on the ends of said track.

4. In a door hanger and track, a track having two horizontally inturned flanges, a pair of two similar plates attached to opposite sides of the u per edge of a door and turned convergent y inward and upward with oppositely turned flanges at the top, said plates being adapted to be inserted in the opening between the flan es of said track, rollers carried by said anges, said plates being resilient and in their upwardly extended portion being separated by a narrow space, said plates being adapted to 00- act with said rollers.

5. In a door hanger of the character described, the combination with a track having two non-meeting horizontall return flanges providing a longitudinal s 0t therein, and rollers carried by said flanges, of a, pair of hanger plates turned convergently inward and extending upwardly at their top, said plates bein resi lent and adapted to be inserted in sai horizontal slot and to be movably supported on said rollers, and a door secured to the hanger plate.

6. A combined door anger and track comprising a hollow track having a continuous slot in the under side thereof with interior bearin trackways on each side, a carrier mount on said trackways and forming therewith a raceway, said carrier having oppositely turned bearing flanges extending over said trackways respectively, said flanges each being divided into front and rear sections separated b a dead space, each section being terminate by stops thereon, a set of rollers distributed oneto each section to coact between the paid raceways and flange sections and stops on said track to limit t 10 motion of said carrier, one of these stops being removable to permit the entrance to said track of said carrier.

In testimony whereof, we have subscribed our names.

BICK R. BONNEY. ORRA A. BROWN. Witnesses:

E. S. Woman, A. T. Gmvnn. 

